Wednesday, 23 January 2013

Really. Poor P... he sat looking through a knitting book sometime last year and asked oh so sweetly if please could his Mummy knit something for him. He is always hopeful when he spies something new on the needles, even if they are some pink baby booties. And he really would like the shiny robot from Zoe Mellor's knitted toys

The photograph fails to show the robot-like shiny thread running through the grey wool, shame as I was so very pleased to find a suitable wool that was still soft. I used Peter Pan Moondust wool, possibly in Bunny, though I can't find the label. I knitted with the recommended 4mm needles for this DK rather than the 2.75mm stated in the pattern, so maybe Patch's robot is a little larger. I also used all of the 50g ball, which is partly why this robot has stripey arms. Also I really liked the striped look. The stripes and other colour bits are knitted with a bamboo DK from the pile. Robot is finished with some starry buttons from Great Gran's tin rather than the felt circles used in the pattern.

An easy knit, though I need to improve colourwork as poor robot has rather a tight little tum. A delighted P on Christmas morn... I really should knit for him more often!- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Tuesday, 22 January 2013

I do think I will have finished mentioning Christmas makes by February... I felt I ought to knit one of these first for me to try the pattern. I wore it much of the festive season. The pattern is mainly Debbie Bliss' hairband with bow from Knits to Give

I like the look of the wound-around-many-times wool for the centre band rather than the knitted band suggested by the pattern. And it was quicker, an important thing as I made oh so many. These are just the ones made one eve. Using ribbon as the headband was great as it could be adjusted to fit three year olds up to adults. Patch fancies mine as a bowtie... I may have to knit another.

P back to school today after the most fun long weekend in the snow. He really has spent most of the weekend in it. Or under a blanket on the sofa, snuggled with warming hot cocoa and Nanny McPhee. Dreamy. P and his Daddy have made a flowerpot hat snowman and thrown so many snowballs. I have joined them for some more genteel tobogganing. Such fun!

Thursday, 17 January 2013

Not at all true to colours as coffee pot a pale blue and wool a rather festive cheery red. I used the cafetiere cosy pattern from Jenny Lord's Purls of Wisdom, knitted in a few more balls of crimson Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift with buttons from Great Gran's tin. Quick, sweet make.

We've been celebrating Patch's 6 birthday. 6... oh my. Patch had mentioned that the one thing he really wanted for his birthday was for it to snow. Tricky. But he got his wish! Happy boy. He also loved his other presents, thank you anyone reading this!

And yes, the Lego head is Patch's birthday cake! Looks fairly acceptable at this distance... The Lego cupcakes that Patch requested to share at snack time at school are safe to be seen closer up

Monday, 14 January 2013

It's January and I'm about to mention Christmas makes... ooops. This year I made many tea cosies for my loved ones

The pattern is the tea cosy pattern from Jenny Lord's Purls of Wisdom. Lovely pattern... they remind me of woolly sea urchins. I used Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift wool mainly because of the happy colourful display in the local wool shop. Just love the colour names too... (from the top) scarlet, granny smith, caspian and sea bright. I knitted with double strands to get the correct tension and needle size for the pattern and happily have some oh so colourful balls of each colour left from the 100g purchased. Hmmm, teeny crochet hexies?

Have just realised that only four colours mentioned, yet five cosies knitted. That's because the second one down was made with Alafosslopi, an Icelandic wool especially for Linda and Ems to remind them of their travels.

I now need to knit myself one.

As I had already used this pattern for a mother's day tea cosy for Mr R's mum I was a little unsure of making them another. But Mr R assured me that they would make very good use of another, and it's true they do drink a lot of tea. Really a lot. So from a strange book full of tea cosy patterns I knitted Maud Tabron's tea rose pattern. I used this pattern a few years ago to make my Mum a birthday cosy, it makes a great thick cosy with two layers and some sweet roses on top. But this time I used some of the Icelandic wool from the pile and made without roses

I had no idea I could write so much about a tea cosy!

Patch is standing at the window hopeful of some proper snow. He has plans to be pulled along on a toboggan to school tomorrow. We shall see...

Sunday, 6 January 2013

Happy new year! We have had such a gentle Christmas time... lots of pyjama days spent playing with Lego, watching Christmas films and playing games. Lovely.

At the start of December -seems an age ago- I made some messenger bags from oliver + s' little things to sew

A dream of a pattern to sew... though fairly lengthy the pattern is so well written that each step is fairly easy. I made the large size for the soon-to-be-eight-years-old Reuben and Casper so a roomy bag. The main fabric is navy cotton duck from Russell & Chapple art suppliers as it has a showerproof finish. Because the duck fabric is heavy duty I didn't have to add interfacing as the pattern suggests. For the lining I used some star print fabric from cloth kits

I used ready-made bias binding from frumble fabrics... I liked the idea of using navy contrast thread on the yellow bias binding but really all it did was show off my wonky stitches. Next time I will stick with a matching thread! The strap webbing was also found at frumble, they have a great range of colours, though next time I would try to find some heavier weight. It was rather tricky finding coloured webbing the right width for the strap adjusters, also horribly tricky to find. Any good ideas where to find?

Other than some ooops moments sewing through all those thick layers this really is a great pattern that I would happily use again.

We filled them with some Christmas stories and sent them with so many happy birthday wishes to The Netherlands for Reuben and Casper's birthday... and I'm told they are most delighted with their birthday bags!- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad